1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle body structure, and more particularly to a vehicle body structure having a front fender and a sub-window plate, such as a front quarter window glass, on a sidewall of a front portion of a vehicle body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, in vehicles, such as minivans, there has been known a technique of providing a sub-window, such as a front quarter window, below a front pillar so as to improve lateral visibility for a front-seat passenger, particularly a driver.
For example, JP 2000-103360A (hereinafter referred to as “Patent Publication 1”) discloses a vehicle body structure having a front pillar panel formed with a triangular opening to provide a front quarter window below a front pillar and thereby improve lateral visibility for a front-seat passenger.
The Patent Publication 1 further discloses a structure of a sidewall of the vehicle body around the triangular opening, which comprises a plurality of body members including a wheel apron reinforcement member.
In vehicles, a headlamp is commonly provided at a front end of a vehicle body to illuminate a road surface ahead thereof, and recently subjected to demands for improving illumination performance and contributing to aesthetic exterior appearance of a vehicle. With a view to meeting such demands, some vehicles are designed such that a headlamp unit is arranged to allow a headlamp lens thereof to extend from a front end surface to a side surface across a front end corner of a vehicle body.
If this headlamp arrangement is simply applied to the above vehicle having the sub-window, a front fender will be located at the rear of the headlamp lens extending to a front end region of the side surface of the vehicle body, and a sub-window plate of the aforementioned sub-window will be located at the rear of the front fender.
This means that the front fender which merely serves as means to define an exterior surface of a sidewall of a vehicle body is interposed between the headlamp lens and the sub-window plate each serving as a functional component. Thus, it has been sought how to further effectively utilize the zone occupied by the front fender. That is, if some kind of advantageous function can be given to the zone occupied by the front fender located at the rear of the headlamp lens, the sidewall surface of the vehicle body will be able to be further effectively utilized. Therefore, there is the need for providing a vehicle body structure capable of achieving such desirable functionality.